John August

Scriptnotes Book

The Book Launch, Live!

Episode - 715

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Scriptnotes, Scriptnotes Book, Transcribed

John and Craig celebrate the release of the Scriptnotes Book with a sold-out show full of arguments, games and holiday cheer at Dynasty Typewriter in LA.

Slate’s Julia Turner returns to interview John and Craig about the fifteen year journey towards creating the book, and challenges Craig’s dismissal of critics. We also welcome back Ashley Nicole Black (Shrinking, Ted Lasso) to help us get through a fridgeful of leftover questions, and invite three lucky audience members to play our new game: “Somewhat strange lines from Christmas movies.”

In our bonus segment for premium members, we invite our audience to ask us questions in a live Q&A.

Links:

Email us at [email protected]

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 12-10-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

The Scriptnotes Book is out today!

Follow Up, News, Scriptnotes Book

scriptnotes book coverOur Big Orange Book is finally available in bookstores around the world today. We’ve gotten a ton of preorders and some terrific reviews.

“Bound to be a staple, this guide, just like the podcast, is accessible, engaging, and informative” – Booklist

“August and Mazin’s volume stands out for its wealth of real-life examples taken from cinema and TV over the past decades, its humanizing tone, and its winning combination of the practical with the entertaining.” – Library Journal

“If you’re going to buy one book on screenwriting, then you should probably make it Scriptnotes by John August and Craig Mazin.” – Forbes

A few things you can do to help us out in this crucial first week:

→ Buy it wherever you buy books. Our official LA bookstore is Chevalier’s on Larchmont, which has some signed copies at least for the next few days. Signed copies are also available at Premiere Collectables for shipping worldwide.

→ Post about it on social media. Tag me (@johnaugust) and Scriptnotes (@scriptnotespodcast) on Instagram/Bluesky/Threads and we’ll repost ya.

→ Leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. The early ones tend to set a tone.

We’re excited to see the book on shelves and in reader’s hands. Please enjoy it and share it with others!

Read the first 30 pages of the Scriptnotes book

Scriptnotes Book

scriptnotes book coverScriptnotes Premium listener Martin Schneider wrote in with a great suggestion:

Gentlemen, as a person who is very conversant in publishing and speaking entirely figuratively, I WOULD KILL TO BE ABLE TO HOLD THAT GALLEY IN MY HANDS FOR THREE MINUTES. It would satisfy some curiosity in me, and it would also spark an interest in seeing the rest.

So then I went to the website you have set up for the book and I clicked on the “SAMPLE PAGES” tab and looked at the inside of your book.

No, of course I did NOT do that because your website has no such section. I think you should have such a section, it is a perfect analog for a movie trailer, to give people a glimpse of the contents of the book.

We’ve all been to Trader Joe’s and we all know that giving you a cracker with a tiny slice of cheese on it can act as a doorway to buying a full box. You should do the same thing.

Martin’s right! We should have put up pages, and now we have.

Head to scriptnotesbook.com to read the first 30 pages of the Scriptnotes book.

You’ll see the table of contents with all our chapters and special guest interviews. Then read Chapter 1: The Rules of Screenwriting and our First Person interview with Christopher Nolan.

Next, please preorder your own hardcover copy!

The Scriptnotes book comes out December 2, 2025. But the time to order it is now.

Preorders are essential for the success of this book. They signal to bookstores and libraries that they should actually stock copies of our book. Plus, they might land us on best-seller lists, which would be kinda remarkable for a book about screenwriting (and things that are interesting to screenwriters).

Once you’ve preordered your book, send Drew a copy of the receipt → [email protected].

Next week, we’ll be sending out a BONUS CHAPTER that didn’t make it into the book: “Getting Stuff Written.” But only to folks who have preordered the book.

We can’t wait for you to read the Scriptnotes book. Get started with the first 30 pages right now.